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Haunted by Four Corners’ Terror in Mumbai

Thoughts about it keep coming back to hit me unexpectedly, like a nasty flick from a tea-towel. Those terrorists had been sold off as the “runts” of the family – sons sacrificed and their lives sold so their other siblings could use the money to get married. If the sold men hadn’t followed all the instructions, their families probably would have been killed. Maybe the cashed-up terror masterminds might have recruited their new soldiers as permanent team members, but no. So they’re rejected by their families and the terrorists and then told to shoot up everyone and they’ll “go to heaven”. The phone instructions were so chilling. Especially when the recruits were reluctant to set fire to the hotel because it has big TV screens and computers and two bathrooms and two kitchens – they were marvelling at riches they’d never seen before.

And the other recruits who kept delaying shooting their hostages – they kept putting it off repeatedly but finally went through with it as the mastermind on the phone kept ringing them back and haranguing them to go through with it.

Were the masterminds religious fanatics at all? They just seemed to be sociopaths wanting to instil fear throughout society. Resentful rejects with lots of money which they used to buy vulnerable people and use their lives as fodder for sadistic power fantasies.

One of the recruits even asked the mastermind on the phone: “Have you done this before?” [killed people]. The mastermind says yes, and assures the recruit he’ll go to heaven. So sad and sick.